The present invention relates to transporting goods. In particular, the invention relates to dollies, on which parceled goods are transported and stored temporarily. To be precise, the invention relates to a dolly according to the preamble portion of claims.
There is known a vast variety of different devices used for transporting parceled goods. Typically pieces or stacks thereof are loaded onto a wheeled platform, on which they are conveyed to shop floor or storage. These wheeled platforms are called dollies. Some dollies are equipped with a tow bar and a corresponding hitch for transporting a plurality of dollies in a chained fashion. When the tow bar for pulling the dolly is temporarily not used, it is typically pivoted in an upright position for saving space. U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,810 proposes one solution to providing a space saving tow bar for a dolly.
Conventional pivoting tow bars, however, occupy valuable space, when the dolly is in transit, for example. When the dolly is loaded onto a trailer such that the tow bar is not used for a long period of time, the folded tow bar uses excess space. This problem has previously been solved by providing couplings between the dolly and the tow bar, whereby the tow bar may be detached for transit. Detachable tow bars, on the other hand, are un-ideal for the reason that the detached tow bars must be handled separately and the coupling typically increases the complexity of the device and therefore reduces its robustness and user-friendliness required for logistics equipment.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide an improved dolly which is not only effective in terms of return logistics but also simple in design and easy to use.